Clinical impact of sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant treatment in breast cancer patients with initially involved axillary lymph nodes; single-center experience- preliminary analysis

Abstract

Introduction: After the consensus conference in St. Gallen and updated NCCN guidelines, we started doing sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in May 2017, for breast cancer patients who achieve clinical axillary remission following neoadjuvant treatment. This study’s primary goal was to evaluate the clinical impact of SLNB after neoadjuvant therapy in the group mentioned above. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all neoadjuvant breast cancer patients from May 2016 until May 2018 at Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka. Our preliminary results recorded the appearance of locoregional and distant recurrence. Results: From 65 patients involved in this analysis, 48 patients were node-positive at the time of diagnosis, and 45.83% among those achieved complete pathological axillary remission. After the first postoperative year, there were no locoregional relapses nor statistically significant differences in the prevalence of distant recurrences, regardless of the extent of surgical procedure. However, results showed higher rates of locoregional and distant relapse for the group of patients that did not attain complete axillary remission. Conclusion: SLNB is a reliable alternative to ALND for locoregional and overall disease control for breast cancer patients who achieve complete clinical axillary remission after preoperative systemic treatment. The clinical axillary lymph node status, after neoadjuvant therapy, is a more relevant prognostic factor than the clinical axillary lymph node status at the beginning of the treatment.

Keywords

• sentinel lymph node biopsy
• neoadjuvant treatment
• recurrence